Smooth and Clean

Well my teeth feel absolutely amazing. Actually, the dentist did very little of the work, but his assitant scraped off all the hard yucky stuff and then polished and flossed. She made it seem so easy. Very gentle and caring. I wonder how much more he made than she did even though she did all the work.

One thing that I was extremely frustrated about (aside from the equity issues) was the previsit questionaire. One of the questions was: "Will you be paying through an health plan/insurance policy?" I asked the receptionist, "What difference does it make." She proceeded to tell me that there are two prices: one with insurance and one without.

How does this work? Have I missed something here? I don't know much about the insurance business except for the fact that it usually screws me over. I'm not to well read on the ways of high finance, the Enrons, the Martha Stewarts, the Eatons. Where I come from charging an insurance company more than you would charge a customer is fraud.

It's no wonder that premiums increase every year. What kills me is the blatant openness of it. They don't try to hide the price differences or what they are doing. I expect that there's a doctoral thesis buried here, or some work for Shiela Fraser.

Is this double pricing common in the dental business? I once owned a candy store and I always joked that I secretly hated my father and opened this business because I wanted to hurt him (this was always strictly a joke as my father and I get along fine). I find the irony of the double charge especially painful since my father's father was an actuary.

I'm confused here, but despite the dubious pricetag, if you have the means, I highly recommend picking up your own visit to the dentist. The problem is that I don't want to eat and screw them up.